Hillsville Town Council approved two rezoning requests during its August 12 regular meeting. Councilmen also took action on two reappointments to the town building code of appeals board and discussed a measure to better insure new street lighting adjustments.
Following a joint public hearing with the town planning commission, Council approved a request to rezone areas on Gardner’s Mill Road from industrial to agricultural/residential. Dennis Ward and Yancey Powers were both reappointed to the building code appeals board with their terms scheduled to expire September 1, 2026.
Town Manager Leanna Surratt and councilmen Greg Yonce, David Young, Barry Jessup, Vice Mayor Ed Terry and Mayor Greg Crowder praised the work of town employees and officials on repairs to a water break from August 11 on Oak Street which prompted the town to issue a boil tap water notice as a precaution. Local restaurants, per Virginia Department of Health recommendations, were allowed to serve beverages with the exception of those made with local ice and water until the notice was lifted on August 13.
“I’d like to thank the Friends of Hillsville and all the town and its crew for making it (Hillsville’s Second Saturday Concerts & Classic Car Cruise-Ins) the biggest concert we’ve ever had. There was so many cars and many people out I couldn’t get down there to look at the cars. It must have been close to 2,000 people,” said Crowder. “The event just keeps getting bigger....I guess our next project will be where we will put it because we’re running out of room there.”
Surratt told council she brought before them a draft proposal concerning street lighting because the office had received many calls weekly concerning calls to Appalachian Power Company to replace or put a security light on power poles.
“The issue is even though we are the agent that handles the request, AEP only installs LED lights. Unfortunately depending on who installs it the new light is not directed in accordance with where the landowner wanted it,” explained Surratt. “When we reach out to AEP they say they will remove or put one up but that is all they will do. They will not re-position.”
Initially it was decided the simple approach to remedy this was to have a policy asking AEP if it would reach out first to all affected landowners and have them sign off for the new lighting. Terry asked if the town pays on the electricity for the lighting (typically in other towns its provided through a non-metered arrangement). Surratt told council the town has received bills for Christmas lighting and asked to see if Hillsville does pay on the security lights usage, which could give staff more leverage in solving these instances.
“We can approve these process....even if AEP shouldn’t do what we think they could and re-direct lights. There still will come a time when this procedure would make for a less awkward situation,” Terry said.
Surratt said she would document these requests, once all parties had a consensus, in the regular town manager reports to council.
“Our police department has agreed to send a monthly report on which ones are out. Once they go out we are going to submit every single month a request to fix them until they are fixed,” said Surratt. “Sometimes we are reporting them as many as four times before we get them to do anything but we will continue to re-submit. It may be an annual billing or something like that but I will work on that.”
According to the Hillsville Police Department (HPD) Law Enforcement Activity Numbers report covering July 1 through July 31, the department served 14 warrants, performed 1,039 business checks and three (personal) welfare checks. The HPD had 10 false/unfounded calls during this time, served 322 uniform summons for speeding, 32 uniform summons for reckless driving, five uniform summons for child safety seats, three uniform summons for hands free violations and 34 warnings at traffic stops. Twenty-one vehicles were observed carrying trash within town limits during this period.
David Broyles may be reached at 276-779-4013 or on “X” at CarrollNewsDave
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